Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Hello! Ah, it's been so long, but I haven't forgotten about you! We've been so busy over the last couple of weeks, it's a little bit nuts. On top of all the regular work, and trying to get ready for our Christmas show, after a year of being on "the list" I finally got a call from the Post Office. I applied for what I thought was an actual job there last year, went through the interview, was told my name had been added, and then I never heard from them again... until now. Apparently this is very common, but it was a bit of a surprise to get that call. Anyway, so far I've been working a couple of days a week at our local Post Office, but I'm just their "casual" person, so basically I am on call. I'm having fun working there, though. And I can see the Post Office from our house, so it's nice to get a little bit of work so close to home.Speaking of getting ready for the Christmas show, Jai and I have spent the last couple of weekends working on our booth. Luckily, Stephen is letting us do it in his shop, because there's no way I could build it in ours! Plus he has this nifty clamp carousel, and since I (perhaps foolishly!) decided we would build it out of solid wood instead of plywood, we needed to glue up forty-two panels before we could even get started!Other than that, we don't have a lot of news to share. Our Mac miraculously fixed itself, somehow. That was a relief - if only the car could have done the same! Jai finally got his wholesale order finished up and I shipped it out this morning. It feels good to get that out of the house!Last night we had Carolyn and River over for a nice dinner. Jai made Mulligatawny soup for the first time, and it was delicious. He reminded me that it wasn't actually the first time we had made that soup. Last time we tried it was several years ago, when we were first starting to cook actual meals for ourselves, and we were both such picky eaters that we eliminated about half the ingredients and ended up with soup that may as well just have been chicken broth. It was much better this time!Tonight, I am off to the theatre where Jai works as they have started up their film society movies again, and we have started up girl's night out again. Last time it was "The Stone Angel," which was a pretty good movie, but quite different from the book I remember having to read in high school. Jo and I were joking about how much we hated that book, but she read it again before the movie, and said she loved it this time, so I may have to give it a second chance. Good old Hagar. Tonight it is "The Visitor" which I know absolutely nothing about.Anyway, my point was, it hasn't been entirely all work and no play, it just feels like it sometimes :)

Friday, October 10, 2008

Hello! No pictures today, because our beloved Mac has crashed! Jai spent very many hours yesterday trying to fix it, and talking on the phone with support guys, but all to no avail, so far. He says he thinks he can fix the computer, but he's not sure if he can save any of our stuff off of it. This is unfortunate, because we didn't have anything backed up. We talked about it sometimes, but...

Anyway, that is today's major bit of news. Luckily we still have the laptop, so I can sit here and update the blog, and we can still get into our e-mails. Although, I was saying it might have been nice to have a day or two that were e-mail free, with no guilt. I feel like I've been spending a lot of time lately answering questions for people who may or may not end up ordering custom items. Wouldn't it be nice if makers could just spend all their time MAKING things? Oh well, I don't want to sound ungrateful, since it's nice that people are finding us.

We got confirmation of our spot in the NSDCC Christmas show. We'll be in booth # 405. It looks like a good spot, so I'm very happy with that. This week, I've been working on doing up some smaller marquetry pieces. I took the camera out a couple of days ago, and shot all sorts of photos of branches and leaves from around our yard and the park behind our house. So far, I've finished two pictures, and I'm all set to start on a third. They were pretty fun because, relatively speaking, they go so fast. Some of the bird pictures have upwards of 40 pieces individually fitted together, and with these there might only be ten or twelve. It's a little less taxing on my brain, and I'm happy with the results. It was Sarah's idea to make some smaller marquetry pieces that people could find a little more affordable. We'll see! I wish I could post some pics, but I'll try and remember next time.

The days are definitely getting cooler, and already it's at the point where we need to start a fire in the shop if we are going to be comfortable out there. Jo and I did a Frenchy's run last week, and everyone is looking for sweaters and scarves. Sarah and Rachel and I are trying to get back into our routine of knitting together once a week, and I'm hoping to knit myself a new scarf before it gets too much colder. The days, however, have been beautiful and clear. I know I've written about this before, but I just really can't overstate how much I enjoy the cyclical nature of the year here. I know most Canadians are used to this, and it's only because I grew up in Victoria, where we get two really long, drawn out seasons (spring and fall) that kind of mush into each other, that I find it so fascinating. But I love feeling the nature of the world around me change. I love how things are getting colder, and I know that Winter is coming. There's a lot more anticipation of what's coming, and appreciation for what is, when you get four distinct seasons. Things are ending now that won't be back until next year.

Speaking of which, tomorrow we are hoping to get down to the Annapolis Royal Farmer's market, since it's the last one of the year. I bet the whole market will smell like apples. I'm hoping someone there will be selling Honeycrisp apples, straight off the tree. I can't wait until we are growing our own! They really are the crispest, juciest, sweetest apples I've ever tasted. If you get a chance to try one, don't miss it. They make most other apples seem kind of bland in comparison. And they'll only be available for the next month or so, so I feel like I have to eat as many as possible while I can. Kind of like mandarin oranges when they first start appearing on the shelves, and they're so good that we eat multiple oranges a day. Only these are locally grown, so they're even better. Anyway, clearly somebody should be paying me to promote local apples!

Oh, and I don't often talk about politics, but we do have an election coming on Tuesday, and there is a lot of really interesting talk right now about the role of the Arts in society. Some Canadian artists are creating some very interesting pieces in response. I had to laugh yesterday while I was driving home from work and listening to the good old CBC. They played a skit by Jane Testar about a little girl who wants to grow up to be a concert pianist. It's very hard to find, the only way I could get it was to download a podcast from CBC's Comedy Factory called Testar-Sterone. Anyway, I did manage to write down one of my favourite moments from it, so I'll leave you with this:

Girl: But, then I can be a pianist, right, Daddy?Dad: Absolutely, sweetheart. A pianist, a teacher, an administrator of a small arts festival, and a waittress at The Keg, all at the same time!

Friday, October 03, 2008

P.S.Our amazing friend Brandon has built us an all-new web-site, so if you haven't been to our Sleeping Forest Studios site in a while, hop on over and let us know what you think!I tried to add a link, but it kept trying to find a blog. Anyway, there's a link in our menu on the right side of the screen :)